Andy Murray Withdraws From 2015 Rome Masters Open

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Andy Murray has had to withdraw from the 2015 Rome Masters Open due to exhaustion as he’s been running on fumes for some time now. Just the fact that he doing back to back Opens and matches is sure to wear anyone down. This is why Novak Djokovic took a three week break to mentally and physically prepare for the 2015 French Open.

Djokovic entered this open and is back to fine form from the rest. Murray went from the Munich Open to the Madrid Open and not to the Rome Open with no rest and that’s on top of his just being married. That alone might be a great time in your life, but for anyone’s who’s been married, it comes with it’s own bag of stress.

Andy Murray has been forced to withdraw from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia ahead of his third-round match with David Goffin, citing fatigue.

The Scot has played 10 matches in the past 12 days, winning his first ATP World Tour clay-court title in Munich (d. Kohlschreiber) before upsetting Rafael Nadal in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open six days later. He opened his Rome campaign on Wednesday against Jeremy Chardy, but after feeling flat in Thursday morning’s practice, decided he could not compete any further this week.

Writing on Twitter, the Scot said, “Sorry to everyone @InteBNLdItalia for withdrawing from the event today. I always feel bad after making decisions like this but my body is extremely tired and fatigued right now having played 10 matches in the last 12 days. I wanted to try to compete in the event but after warming up today I didn’t feel able to compete. I hope next year I can come back to Rome and do better. Sorry, Andy.”

The 27-year-old third seed, who had considered skipping the tournament to rest for the French Open, beat Jeremy Chardy 6-4 6-3 in the previous round.

“I’ve played so much over the past 14 days. I’ve played 10 matches with some extremely late finishes and my body needs to rest,” Murray said in interviews.

“I actually felt I played a good match yesterday, but my body is tired. I have to listen to that and respect that.”

Elsewhere in the draw, Roger Federer survived a late fightback by Kevin Anderson to win 6-3 7-5 and book his place in the quarter-finals.

If the Swiss beats either Czech Tomas Berdych or local hope Fabio Fognini, he could play Rafael Nadal in the semi-final.

The Spaniard reached the last eight with a 6-4 6-4 win over American John Isner and will now meet Swiss Stan Wawrinka on Friday.

Murray’s victory over Frenchman Chardy followed back-to-back tournament victories in Munich and Madrid, where he defeated Rafael Nadal for the first time on clay in the final.

Murray’s match against Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round in Madrid started at 01:12 local time – one minute short of the latest everon the ATP tour. The match finished at 03:00.

After several lengthy matches forced the late start, the Scot said: “If they want the players to perform at their best, players shouldn’t be playing at three o’clock in the morning.”

The ATP later said it would review its scheduling policy.

World number one Serena Williams has pulled out of the women’s event in Rome because of an elbow injury.

In his press conference, Murray explained, “I always want to play. That’s why, when we chatted, we didn’t just speak for two minutes. It was a proper conversation and weighing up all of the pros and cons. I’m very tired just now and I need to take a break.

“I didn’t expect to do what I’ve done the past few weeks,” added the Dunblane native. “My body has never been through that before on the clay. It’s a surface I’ve always struggled on physically. My body’s always found the surface difficult. This year, it’s been very good.

“I also don’t want to risk making it worse; in the past, I’ve maybe trained too much. I wanted to play in this event. It’s a big tournament, a lot of points on offer. The time of year is tough on everyone and it’s just one of those things.”

“I’m going to take a few days’ rest. I won’t train; I won’t go on the court. I just need a few days to recover. I’ll go home either tonight or tomorrow morning and spend a few days at home, maybe see my physio a little bit over the weekend to try and help the recovery process. I’ll try to rest and sleep and recover; that’s what I need to do right now. Hopefully I’ll get to Paris early next week and get some good days’ training done there.”

By virtue of the walkover, World No. 20 Goffin, who saved three match points to upset Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round, is through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final. He goes on to face David Ferrer.